in the /mnt/home/puppy520 directory i have two files (but others also) namely a *save.bak & *save.3fs

Q1 at every reboot puppy will overwrite the *save.3fs with the contents of *save.bak But what if the contents did not change? is the file overwritten regardless? What about a "What if" statement to compare if a change has been made then skip overwrite if they're the same?

Q2 if I need to make a change to the system AFAIK I need to delete the *save.bak file - make the changes and reboot saving to the *save.3fs file - On reboot to the live cd I only need to rename the *save.3fs file to *save.bak then reboot without saving changes (with respect to the live cd) correct??

Q3 Is puppy aware of save file name changes? eg is puppy expecting a specific save file as previously saved or if perhaps the name was changed via a live cd, will puppy load the *save file so long as it has a *.3fs or *.2fs file extension??

Q4 Are the 2fs or 3fs save file extensions reflective of the file system used within the save file??

Q1 at every reboot puppy will overwrite the *save.3fs with the contents of *save.bak But what if the contents did not change? is the file overwritten regardless?

Yes. The lines of code you added to the initrd don't check to see if the save file changed in the previous session. But it only takes a few seconds to overwrite the file.

Quote:

Q2 if I need to make a change to the system AFAIK I need to delete the *save.bak file - make the changes and reboot saving to the *save.3fs file - On reboot to the live cd I only need to rename the *save.3fs file to *save.bak then reboot without saving changes (with respect to the live cd) correct??

That sounds too complicated. When you make a change to the system, that change is immediately stored in the save.3fs. To "lock in" that change, boot off the Live CD, mount the Puppy partition and copy the current save.3fs over top of the save.bak file. Then reboot.

Quote:

Q3 Is puppy aware of save file name changes? eg is puppy expecting a specific save file as previously saved or if perhaps the name was changed via a live cd, will puppy load the *save file so long as it has a *.3fs or *.2fs file extension??

Each Puppy version is coded to look for a savefile with a particular name. In your case it's either macpup_save.2fs or .3fs. If it finds other files that it thinks might also be savefiles, it gives you a menu.

Q1 at every reboot puppy will overwrite the *save.3fs with the contents of *save.bak But what if the contents did not change? is the file overwritten regardless?

Yes. The lines of code you added to the initrd don't check to see if the save file changed in the previous session. But it only takes a few seconds to overwrite the file.

I guess that depends on the size of the save file and how slow the equipment.. for me this took a minute approximately - a small price to pay but am thinking a changed save file is more rare than it is a daily occurrence is all..

Quote:

Quote:

Q2 if I need to make a change to the system AFAIK I need to delete the *save.bak file - make the changes and reboot saving to the *save.3fs file - On reboot to the live cd I only need to rename the *save.3fs file to *save.bak then reboot without saving changes (with respect to the live cd) correct??

That sounds too complicated. When you make a change to the system, that change is immediately stored in the save.3fs. To "lock in" that change, boot off the Live CD, mount the Puppy partition and copy the current save.3fs over top of the save.bak file. Then reboot.

I agree, less steps are better

Quote:

Quote:

Q3 Is puppy aware of save file name changes? eg is puppy expecting a specific save file as previously saved or if perhaps the name was changed via a live cd, will puppy load the *save file so long as it has a *.3fs or *.2fs file extension??

Each Puppy version is coded to look for a savefile with a particular name. In your case it's either macpup_save.2fs or .3fs. If it finds other files that it thinks might also be savefiles, it gives you a menu.

Interesting, thanks..

sorry i kept returning to add more to each question, but what of Q4 ??

The Linpus Linux distro as used in the eeepc and which can also be downloaded (ver 9.4) for evaluation does something very similar to rcrsn51 post at the top.

It is certainly foolproof.

Good article guys.

Richard in Adelaide
where it is wet, windy and cold (by Ozzie standards)_________________Have you noticed editing is always needed for the inevitable typos that weren't there when you hit the "post" button?

Most (all?) applications will save by default to /root, so any user data would be lost on a reboot. But there are ways around this.

In Firefox, you can move the hidden profile from /root/.mozilla to /mnt/home outside of the pup_save and replace it with a symlink.

You could do the same thing with any configuration folders like .gxine where the playlist is stored.

Similarly, the folder /root/my-documents could be symlinked to an external location. Users would just need to remember to save to that folder instead of directly into /root.

Ok the procedure is working great thanks again rcrsn51 I'm really happy with the mijnpup frugal install and the modified protected savefile. However it wasn't without a few incidents along the way, like manipulating the save file whilst booted into the same frugal install, like making backups of them and renaming for archiving etc etc. Most of the time I got it right but there were some occasions when my timing was off or I chose to reuse a savefile which had not been shutdown when the backup was made, causing an error at at next boot. yes I know I should have booted into a live cd to make the changes.. But I got to learn somehow right!!

I do have another question!!

If we move any user directories to another partition and symlink them back into the install, don't we need to set puppy to mount that partition for the directories to show up as expected?

If so, how about adding the mount command to the initrd script? without an unmount command?

When you make a change to the system, that change is immediately stored in the save.3fs. To "lock in" that change, boot off the Live CD, mount the Puppy partition and copy the current save.3fs over top of the save.bak file. Then reboot.

I wrote something I thought would work rather similar as a suggestion to somebody wanting some help but I got a very concerned contributer telling me it was a very bad behavior to suggest something like that.

Maybe what you recommend works due to the fact you use a Live CD.

Would it be dangerous to do the same in a frugal install where you "mount the Puppy partition and copy the current save.3fs over top of the save.bak file. Then reboot."

would that be due to puppy being in different pup modes in a Cd live and a Frugal live? I am not savvy enough to get if my suggestion really is exact like the one you suggest here but I thought it was when I wrote it and the person I learned it from had used it between 30 or 40 times without anything bad to happen to the save file. Him being in frugal install while doing it._________________I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

The other issue is protecting the boot and pupy files because it appears that the chattr +i command can be reversed by anyone using the chattr -i command.. maybe this is dependent on which root user is using the chattr +i command? Just thinking out loud..